Badin vs. Fredericktown
Miamisburg graduation 2012
Valley View vs. Greenville
Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.
Scott Elliott is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He writes about education, city and suburban issues, politics, business, workforce and consumer issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2010 > May > 02
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Editorial: Primaries feature juicy, important races
2010 ELECTION
Don’t sit out Tuesday’s primary election. There are interesting and important races at both the state and local levels.
Among the most important and hotly contested races are:
State Issue 1
Few regions have benefited as much from the state’s Third Frontier initiative as Dayton. If the issue passes, it would allow the state to borrow $700 million to use for job creation, principally by supporting research at Ohio’s universities and in concert with businesses.
More than $120 million has been awarded to Dayton-area ventures.
Ohio is smart to sponsor targeted research and development to incubate good ideas that otherwise might not get off the ground, or that might blossom in another state that would back the effort.
Dayton is especially well-positioned to benefit because of the increasingly sophisticated research and development work that its universities are doing, not to mention Wright-Patterson Air Force Base’s focus on research for the military.
Statewide races
• In the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, Jennifer Brunner and Lee Fisher have similar political views, and both have reputations for working hard. But Mr. Fisher’s wide-ranging experience in the executive and legislative branches of state government — and especially his work in job development — tip the balance to him. He knows the state and its issues. He is the stronger candidate.
• For secretary of state, the easy choice in the Republican primary race is a familiar name — Jon Husted, Kettering’s state senator and the former speaker of the Ohio House.
Sen. Husted has a long track record of interest in election issues, including supporting reforms that would make Ohio’s political races more competitive and eliminate gerrymandered districts designed to ensure that a particular party always wins certain seats. He is the clear choice over former Ashtabula County Auditor Sandra O’Brien.
• Another local legislator — Rep. Seth Morgan R-Huber Heights — is seeking the Republican nomination for statewide office as state auditor. His opponent, Delaware County Prosecutor Dave Yost, is the better choice. Mr. Yost is more qualified to run a major statewide office based on his county-level experience. Both are conservatives, but Mr. Yost is more practical and less fixated on purely ideological fights.
Local school levies
Five area school levies are worthy of voters’ support — in the school districts of Kettering, Miamisburg, Northmont, Trotwood-Madison and West Carrollton. Each district is either a high performer or has demonstrated significant academic improvement in recent years.
In each case, the districts have made cuts and hope to avoid the kind of deep reductions that can bring down an academic program.
Local races
Two of the most hotly contested races locally are in the Warren County Republican primary.
Shannon Jones and Michelle Schneider want to be the Republicans’ choice for the state senate seat that Ms. Jones was appointed to last year.
Meanwhile, a five-way battle is under way for to replace Commissioner Mike Kilburn on the Warren County Commission. This is the election for that race because no Democrat has filed to run in the fall.
Ms. Jones and Ms. Schneider have been engaged in an intense campaign. Ms. Jones has hit the ground running in her short time in the Senate. She brings energy to the job.
Tom Ariss, the retired Warren County sheriff, can be counted on to work collaboratively on tough issues. He is well respected and has a reputation for making good decisions and getting things done.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Post your comment | Categories: 2010 endorsements, Editorials, Miami Valley Politics, Ohio politics
TweetEllen Belcher: Ohio’s running short; Central State pays price
Two years ago, financially eligible students attending Ohio’s public colleges could get a scholarship from the state for as much as $2,500 annually.
Multiply that check by four years, and it’s a significant number.
This year the maximum grant is $1,008. Next year it will be $888.
This is a cut that the state is making that you probably don’t know about unless it affects you. But even if you aren’t writing tuition checks now, you might be one day. If you’ll never be paying tuition, know that the decision undermines efforts to increase the number of Ohioans who have college degrees.
Meanwhile, the impact is hurting more in some homes than others.
Though Ohio’s tuition rates have been high compared to other states, the state historically has been a leader in giving financial aid, offering it since 1969. Though the programs have changed over the years, the current one is need-based.
Eligibility is tied to a federal formula that spits out the amount a family is expected to contribute toward a student’s education — depending on income, number of children in the home and so on.
Besides reducing scholarship amounts, Ohio has changed other rules. Whether that’s a good thing depends on where your student goes to school.
If you have a family income of, say, $50,000 and two children, and your daughter is going to Miami University or Ohio State, you’ll probably like the new formula. If, on the other hand, she wants to go to the much-less expensive Central State University — Ohio’s only historically black public university — you’ll be put out. She will get no aid.
That’s because Ohio has changed its calculation so that students going to schools with higher tuition get more assistance. However, Central State, which has historically kept its tuition low as a part of its mission, is being penalized.
Here’s how:
Ohio’s financial aid policy requires that students who get federal Pell grants, which are also need-based and have been raised significantly to $5,350, must use that money toward tuition. If a student’s Pell money covers the entire tuition, then she’s not eligible for Ohio’s scholarship.
Central State’s tuition is $5,294 — $56 less than the maximum Pell amount. This year, 431 students there were dropped from the Ohio scholarship rolls.
Prior to this change, if a student qualified for Pell money and an Ohio scholarship and the total was more than the cost of tuition, she could use the remainder for books, room and board or transportation. (This was true of students attending community colleges and branch campuses. They, too, are no longer eligible.)
Because the changes were made in the state budget and after financial award letters had already gone out to incoming students, Central State used funds slated for other expenses to make good on the promise of a state scholarship.
If it hadn’t done that, the college would have been reneging on what it told students they would have to pay. That $2,500 (the typical aid at Central State before the cuts) makes all the difference in the world to low-income families.
Other universities also had students who thought they were going to get state money, and they, too, did what Central State did. The difference, though, is that massive Ohio State, for instance, had an easier time finding the cash.
No one set out to punish Central State. But the effect is the effect.
The board of regents — which had a big hand in setting the policy — has its reasons.
The scholarships were an entitlement. The more students who qualified, the more money the state had to put up; enrollment was going up in the recession, even as state revenue was dropping.
Meanwhile, with the federal Pell grant being increased, the state could justify reducing its help.
The regents also argue that students who choose higher cost schools haven’t been getting the same proportional help as those who were choosing low-cost schools; the state’s first priority should be making sure students have enough tuition money.
Central State does get a special supplement from the state, but almost every time Columbus does something to assist the financially strapped university, it turns around and does something else that undermines it.
The regents can rationally say that Ohio has to limit how much it’s going to spend helping low-income students get to college. It can decide that low-income students deserve a shot at going to higher-price schools.
But in making this decision, it also decided that Central State gets no consideration for not raising its tuition through the roof when virtually all of Ohio’s colleges were doing so.
Fairness looks different depending on where you sit.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Post your comment | Categories: Columns, Ellen Belcher, Higher Ed, Ohio government, Ohio politics
Tweet
